THE  DEGRADATION 

OF  OUR 

REPRESENTATIVE  SYSTEM, 

AND  ITS 

REFORM. 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


THE  DEGRADATION 


OF  OUR 


REPRESENTATIVE  SYSTEM, 

AND  ITS 

REFORM. 


BY  J.  FRANCIS  FISHER. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
C.  SHERMAN,  SOX  &  CO.,  PRINTERS. 
1  8  6  3. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/degradationofourOOfish 


THE  DEGKADATION 

OF  OUR 

REPRESENTATIVE  SYSTEM. 


Whatever  may  be  the  result  of  the  bloody  war  now  raging, 
it  is  presumed  there  is  no  one  who  does  not  see  that  it  has 
already  given  such  a  shock  to  our  republican  institutions,  that 
they  will  require  great  and  important  modifications,  if  not  a 
reconstruction  from  their  very  foundation.  Many  changes 
must  be  made,  both  to  give  the  requisite  strength  to  the  gene- 
ral Government,  and  to  prevent  that  strength  being  abused; 
to  consolidate  the  restored  or  diminished  confederacy,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  to  save  our  local  institutions,  our  personal 
liberties,  from  extinction ;  above  all,  to  guard  us,  if  possible, 
from  the  evils  we  have  experienced  in  our  system  of  election 
for  National  offices,  especially,  that  of  President  of  the  United 
States ;  evils  which  will  be  greatly  augmented  in  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  the  present  war, — the  enormous  military  power 
of  the  Executive. 

In  the  happy  days  of  the  past,  our  countrymen  seemed  de- 
termined to  shut  their  eyes  to  the  rapid  decay  of  public  virtue 
in  their  representatives,  whether  in  executive  or  legislative 
office ;  and,  because  our  prosperity  was  unchecked,  wealth 
every  day  rewarding  industry  and  ingenuity,  and  our  popula- 
tion swelling  with  unprecedented  speed,  they  were  disposed 


4 


to  set  all  this  to  the  credit  of  our  admirable  system  of  Govern- 
ment ;  fondly  believing  that,  if  their  Legislatures  were  corrupt 
and  their  Chief  Magistrates  the  tools  and  slaves  of  party,  it 
was  the  strongest  proof  of  the  vigor  of  our  Republican  Insti- 
tutions which  could  bear  it  all.  !Not  perceiving  that,  in  the 
degeneracy  of  our  public  men,  and  the  debased  tone  of  public 
morality,  we  were  daily  losing  the  virtues  which  are  the  only 
true  supports  of  Democracy, — that  the  framework  of  our  in- 
stitutions was  rotting  away,  the  foundations  of  our  Republic 
undermined,  and  the  real  buttresses  of  liberty  destroyed.  It 
is  only  now,  when  civil  war  has  almost  shaken  the  whole  fabric 
to  pieces,  when  our  country  is  overwhelmed  with  difficulties  of 
all  sorts,  and  humiliated  by  defeats,  and  still  more  by  the 
causes  of  them,  that  doubt  and  dismay  are  spreading  through- 
out the  land,  and  those  who  always  confided  in  Democracy 
begin  to  doubt  its  ultimate  success. 

In  this  state  of  the  popular  mind,  a  hearing  may  be  had  for 
one,  who  has  for  a  long  time  studied  our  Institutions  by  the 
light  of  History,  and  the  tests  of  contemporary  results ;  and 
who  thinks  he  sees  wherein  they  have  failed,  and  the  causes 
of  the  failure.  These  he  will  expose,  with  a  plan  of  reform 
which,  if  capable  of  execution,  seems  to  promise  a  restoration 
of  the  pristine  virtues  and  honor  of  the  Republic. 

The  following  pages  are  presented  to  the  public  without  hesi- 
tation, but  with  a  good  deal  of  diffidence.  Every  citizen  who 
thinks  he  can  say  aught  that  will  promote  the  good  of  his 
country  in  times  of  doubt  and  difficulty,  should  give  utter- 
ance to  the  results  of  his  reflections,  however  crude ;  for  others 
may  work  them  up,  or  they  may  suggest  to  superior  minds 
better  means  of  attaining  the  same  end,  either  approximating 
or  in  opposition  to  his  own. 

It  may  be,  that  the  same  or  similar  plans  have  presented 


5 


themselves  to  others,  and  have  been  rejected  as  impracticable. 
Where  the  evils  to  be  remedied  are  so  flagrant,  it  seems  hardly 
credible  that  some  such  scheme  as  the  one  to  be  proposed  here- 
after, has  occurred  to  none  of  the  many  ingenious  minds,  who, 
for  a  long  time,  have  been  earnestly  watching  the  working  of 
our  system  of  representation  with  sad  misgivings. 

But,  if  it  has  ever  appeared  in  print  on  this  side  of  the  At- 
lantic, it  has  never  met  the  eye  of  the  writer.  The  work  of 
Mr.  Thomas  Hare,  which  was  procured  after  reading  the  high 
commendation  of  it,  by  Mr.  I.  Stuart  Mills,  in  his  work  on 
Representative  Government,  printed  last  year,  leads  to  the  be- 
lief that  he  was  the  first  European  writer  who,  perceiving  the 
evil  of  electing  legislative  bodies  by  majorities,  suggested  the 
remedy,  by  requiring  the  full  complement  of  votes  for  each 
member,  and  uniting  the  minorities. 

His  work  is  admirably  reasoned;  and,  although  it  seems 
absurd  to  add  the  commendation  of  an  unknown  writer  to  the 
high  praises  it  received  from  Mr.  Mills,  it  may  be  said  that 
his  arguments  seem  unanswerable,  and  nothing  better  could 
be  done  than  to  call  for  an  American  reprint  of  them,  if  it 
were  not,  that  being  based  on  English  experience  only,  they 
leave  the  case  imperfectly  stated,  or  rather,  not  sustained  by 
the  overwhelming  evidence  the  history  of  our  country  can 
give;  and  that  his  plan  for  voting,  if  practicable  in  England, 
would  be  utterly  impossible  here.  This  plan  will  be  noticed 
hereafter. 

The  conclusion  has  therefore  been  adopted,  without  pre- 
tending to  philosophical  method,  to  accumulate  the  evidence 
to  be  had  in  America  of  the  dangers,  corruptions,  and  degra- 
dations of  our  representative  system ;  and,  as  clearly  as  possi- 
ble, to  explain  a  method  of  reforming  it  by  a  mode  of  voting 
less  complicated  and  unmanageable  than  that  suggested  by 
Mr.  Hare, — a  mode  to  which  it  seems  the  chief  objection  would 


6 


be,  the  opposition  it  would  receive,  not  from  those  who  would 
use  it,  but  from  those  who  have  abused  the  existing  system  to 
their  own  purposes,  viz.,  the  large  and  powerful  class  of  politi- 
cians. 

The  formation  of  this  scheme,  may  be  dated  back  some 
seven  or  eight  years,  in  the  course  of  which  time,  it  has  been 
often  opened  to  various  friends,  and  once,  at  least,  in  1857, 
drawn  out  in  a  full  plan  of  voting;  but  the  conviction  that  it 
would  be  scouted  by  those  who  control  public  opinion,  by  all 
whose  business  it  is  to  manage  parties  and  carry  elections,  and 
perhaps  set  down  as  a  Utopian  project  by  patriots  and  states- 
men, postponed  its  completion.  The  present  state  of  our  coun- 
try at  least  gives  a  hope  that  it  will  not  be  rejected  without 
consideration,  and  the  approbation  bestowed  in  England  on 
the  plan  of  Mr.  Hare,  inspires  a  belief  that  this  contemporary 
creation  of  an  American  may  also  have  its  merits. 

The  differences  are  so  essential,  as  to  relieve  the  author  of 
any  charge  of  plagiarism,  even  without  the  preceding  explana- 
tion. 

If  in  England,  where  universal  suffrage  and  an  equal  appor- 
tionment of  votes,  according  to  numbers  and  equal  territorial 
divisions,  has  not  yet  been  introduced,  it  is  found  that  the  system 
of  electing  by  majorities,  in  large  constituencies,  is  so  far 
from  being  fair  and  impartial,  that  it  really  tends  to  disfran- 
chise a  large  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  every  district,  and 
that,  so  far  from  giving  to  the  great  centres  of  commerce  and 
manufactures,  where  the  nearest  approach  to  our  system  exists, 
the  advantage  over  the  much-abused  borough  representations, 
it  generally  procures  for  them  members  of  the  least  weight 
for  character  and  abilities  of  all  in  Parliament, — it  may  well 
induce  a  pause  by  the  advocates  of  universal  suffrage  as  the 
panacea  for  all  political  evils. 

This  result  may  be  a  great  surprise  to  the  enthusiastic  re- 


T 


former  who  has  convinced  himself  that  nothing  but  evil  can 
come  from  aristocratic  rule,  and  that  it  is  only  necessary  to 
give  an  equal  share  of  political  rights  to  every  inhabitant  of 
a  country,  to  call  forth  universal  intelligence  and  secure  good 
government  for  all;  but  many  wise  men  in  our  country,  where 
the  system  has  had  a  fair  trial,  have  come  to  an  opposite  result. 

Little  is  understood  in  England  of  our  system  of  caucus 
and  primary  elections,  by  which  party  nominations  are  ma- 
naged and  by  which  a  few  men  who  devote  themselves  to  poli- 
tics by  profession  (men  little  known  beyond  their  own  sphere, 
and  very  little  respected  there),  organize  all  the  initiatory  steps 
towards  a  nomination  of  candidates,  and  so  skilfully  manage 
their  forces  by  a  system  of  secret  understanding  and  pledges, 
that  it  is  impossible  for  any  one  to  be  presented  to  the  public 
as  a  candidate,  except  the  one  selected  by  them  in  secret  con- 
clave. This  is  the  inevitable  result  of  our  system,  and  it 
may  be  asserted,  that  it  is  not  the  consequence  of  the  neglect 
of  these  primary  meetings  by  those  who  have  the  largest  inte- 
rest at  stake,  and  who,  by  their  intelligence,  education,  and 
social  standing,  ought  to  have  most  weight  among  their  fellow- 
citizens.  Their  attendance  at  these  meetings  might  have  a 
sort  of  ephemeral  success,  but  it  would  only  result  in  carrying 
the  machinery  a  little  more  out  of  sight,  and  perhaps,  rather 
aggravating  the  evil. 

These  primary  party  meetings,  being  governed  in  nothing 
by  law  or  principle,  but  controlled  entirely  by  party  tactics, 
and  worked  for  the  sole  benefit  of  those  who  manage  them, 
would,  as  soon  as  they  failed  to  attain  the  ends  of  these  pro- 
fessional politicians,  be  sure  to  be  packed  by  men  selected  in 
secret  places ;  and  we  should  again  be  forced  into  the  old  track, 
be  obliged  to  submit  to  the  dictation  of  a  class  of  men  the 
least  trustworthy,  who  have  thus  juggled  out  of  sight  all  but 


8 


a  single  candidate,  whom  we  must  take,  or  be  sure  of  a  defeat 
by  our  opponents. 

This  system  of  nomination  has  the  additional  disastrous 
effect  of  disgusting  a  large  number  among  our  most  respectable 
and  intelligent  citizens.  They  find  that  both  parties  have 
presented  for  their  suffrage  men  whom  they  cannot  trust, 
perhaps  know  to  be  dishonest,  and  vote  for  neither.  This 
again  gives  great  advantage  to  the  political  managers,  and 
often  throws  the  election  into  the  hands  of  an  actual  minority, 
even  when  there  are  only  two  candidates  in  the  field. 

In  England  there  are  rarely  three  candidates  for  a  single 
place,  and  Mr.  Hare  goes  into  a  calculation  to  show  that  even 
where  the  votes  are  fairly  polled,  and  the  majority  clearly 
ascertained,  the  candidate  is  by  no  means  sure  to  represent 
his  supposed  constituency ;  and  this  is,  for  greater  reason,  true 
in  our  country,  where  a  still  larger  number  always  abstain  from 
voting.  He  maintains  what  we  well  know  by  our  experience, 
that  those  who  have  voted  against  the  member  returned,  are 
as  effectually  disfranchised  as  if  they  had  been  excluded  by 
law  from  the  polls ;  and  their  wishes,  representations  and  inte- 
rests are  utterly  without  weight  till  the  period  of  the  next 
election. 

The  members  constituting  the  House,  are  of  course  governed 
by  a  party  majority,  which  majority  is  again  controlled  by  a 
majority  of  their  own  party  members,  generally  the  most  vio- 
lent and  extreme  of  all.  In  this  country  we  have  no  inde- 
pendent middle  men  in  our  legislative  assemblies ;  no  centre 
droit  and  centre  gauche,  ready  to  check  extreme  measures  either 
of  government  or  opposition.  The  leaders  of  the  party  carry 
everything — none  dare  resist.  An  independent  member  is  im- 
possible. This  is  the  necessary  consequence  of  our  American 
system,  and  the  result  is  an  Oligarchy  the  worst  and  most 
unprincipled  of  all, — an  Oligarchy  of  demagogues,  in  which  a 


9 


certain  show  is  made  of  carrying  out  popular  views  and  wishes, 
but  these  views  and  wishes  are  the  very  suggestions  of  their 
leaders,  who  well  know  how  to  blind  their  constituents  and 
stimulate  their  passions,  and  who,  by  the  fiction  of  represent- 
ing a  majority,  impose  the  weight  of  force  and  the  terrorism 
of  numbers,  and  often  carry  legislative  measures  which  have 
the 'reluctant  assent  of  the  more  honest  and  moderate  of  their 
colleagues,  and  which,  if  presented  to  the  unbiassed  judgment 
of  the  constituents  of  their  own  party,  would  probably  be 
reprobated  and  rejected. 

One  among  many  of  the  evil  consequences  of  this  system 
is  the  want  of  stability  in  the  policy  of  the  Government.  The 
party  in  the  ascendant  is  sure,  however  small  its  preponder- 
ance of  votes,  to  carry  out  their  programme  to  the  last  letter ; 
and  this  is  sometimes  the  most  politic  course  for  those  who  are 
ready  to  sacrifice  their  country  to  the  success  of  their  party ; 
but  it  is  nevertheless  difficult  to  preserve  this  ascendency  beyond 
the  current  term  of  office ;  for  the  party  defeated  at  the  polls, 
swollen  by  the  addition  of  the  discontented  members  of  the 
successful  one,  or  those  of  a  third  division  previously  voting 
on  neither  side,  or  for  a  third  candidate,  is  often  quite  sufficient 
to  displace  the  small  majority  before  the  next  election. 

The  consequence  is  a  new  scramble  for  offices  and  spoils, 
and  very  often  an  entire  revolution  in  measures,  in  which  sta- 
bility of  purpose  is  almost  as  important  as  a  wise  financial  or 
political  policy. 

But  of  all  the  evil  consequences  of  this  unstable  possession 
of  power,  the  most  obnoxious  is  a  party  measure  peculiar  to 
our  country,  invented,  it  is  said,  by  one  of  the  early  Demo- 
cratic Governors  of  Massachusetts,  from  whom  it  has  its  ap- 
pellation,— Gerrymandering.  A  more  unprincipled  scheme, 
and  one  more  opposed  to  the  true  principles  of  Democracy, 
never  was  imagined  or  put  in  practice;  its  object  being  so  to 


10 


arrange  the  electoral  districts  as  to  neutralize  the  votes  of  the 
opposing  party,  massing  their  votes  together  in  some  places 
where  their  ascendency  cannot  be  disputed,  detaching  counties, 
townships  or  wards  from  their  natural  connection  to  destroy 
an  existing  majority,  or  to  create  it  where  wanted  to  maintain 
party  ascendency;  and  all  this  without  any  regard  to  territo- 
rial connection,  common  interests,  or  any  other  consideration 
but  the  control  of  votes.  This  is  so  notorious  and  of  such 
constant  practice,  that  it  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge  upon  it  to 
my  American  readers;  it  is  one  of  the  monstrous  evils  arising 
out  of  our  mode  of  electing  by  local  majorities,  which  cries 
out  for  reform, — a  reform  not  easily  to  be  obtained  from  the 
class  of  men  who  govern  us,  and  who  consider  this  as  a  most 
valuable  part  of  their  political  machinery. 

Desperate  men  clutch  at  any  means  of  safety ;  and  a  party, 
finding  itself  in  a  real  minority,  will  often  reconcile  itself  even 
to  the  sacrifice  of  its  own  principles  and  the  most  sacred 
guarantees  of  liberty  and  civil  rights  to  secure  their  power. 
This  is  most  conspicuously  plain  in  the  mode  by  which  votes, 
outside  of  party  organization,  are  bought ;  and,  I  am  sorry 
to  add,  by  that  political  division  heretofore  calling  itself 
conservative,  and  claiming  to  contain  within  it  the  greater 
part  of  the  wealth,  education,  and  respectability  of  the  coun- 
try. The  leaders,  finding  it  difficult  to  contend  against  the 
prestige  of  democratic  name,  secured  to  that  great  political 
sect  by  Jefferson,  its  first  prophet,  and  by  Jackson,  its  second 
incarnation,  have  been  willing  to  ally  themselves  with  those 
extreme  and  often  dangerous  factions  founded  in  fanaticism  or 
the  basest  instincts  of  man.  Thus  they  have  advocated  by 
turns  Teetotalism,  Antimasonry,  Abolitionism-,  encouraged  the 
Dorrite  rebellion  in  Rhode  Island  and  the  Anti-rent  movement 
in  New  York,  tolerated  among  them  the  disciples  of  St. 
Simon,  Fourier,  and  Fanny  Wright,  and,  what  perhaps  was 


11 


worst  of  all,  were  willing  to  sacrifice  the  most  sacred  princi- 
ples of  liberty  in  an  independent  judiciary,  the  great  result  of 
the  Revolution  of  1688  in  our  mother  country,  the  great 
achievement  of  those  patriots  who  for  centuries  had  been  the 
enemies  and  victims  of  arbitrary  power, — power  inconceivably 
more  dangerous  when  possessed  by  a  majority  than  when  held 
by  one. 

I  do  not  give  any  credit  to  the  so-called  Democracy  for  re- 
jecting or  opposing  these  dangerous  opinions  and  projects.  It 
would  have  been  gratuitous  mischief  with  them,  for  they  gene- 
rally had  the  majority  at  home,  and  were  always  kept  in 
check  by  the  great  party  at  the  South,  who  could  not  jeopard 
their  own  chartered  interests  by  tolerating  among  their  allies 
any  principle  likely  to  undermine  them  ;  and  who,  with  all 
the  evils  of  their  social  constitution,  were  generally  free  from 
the  pernicious  influence  of  Socialism  and  Infidelity. 

It  is  not  easy  to  estimate  the  mischief  which  the  existence 
of  a  third  party  in  the  State  can  do,  when  the  elections  de- 
pend on  simple  majorities  or  pluralities.  Its  leaders  may  be 
honest  and  offer  their  votes  to  the  party  second  in  numerical 
strength,  provided  it  will  adopt  their  social  or  political  creed 
and  shibboleth ;  or,  they  may  make  a  bargain  for  themselves, 
and  a  share  of  offices  and  the  spoils  of  victory  may  be  a  part 
of  their  conditions ;  or  if  the  minority  party  cannot  make  the 
sacrifice,  or  rather  advocate  what  would  revolt  all  the  intelli- 
gent and  honest  men  of  their  political  communion,  the  plura- 
lity, without  any  such  sacrifice,  may  secure  the  victory  by 
encouraging  a  third  nomination,  which  will  work  equally  well 
for  their  success,  and  the  arrangements  of  such  a  bargain  may 
defy  detection. 

To  present  this  point  in  a  clearer  view,  I  would  cite  an  ex- 
ample from  our  history ;  one  of  those  events  in  our  national 
life  upon  which  depends,  for  weal  or  woe,  a  long  series  of  con- 


12 


sequences.  The  result,  as  traced  to  the  present  point,  is  not 
to  be  mistaken,  and  there  is  still  behind  the  cloud  we  are  pass- 
ing through,  a  train  of  miseries  not  to  be  estimated  now. 

I  speak  of  the  Presidential  contest,  when  Henry  Clay 
was  defeated  by  James  K.  Polk.  The  decision  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  Abolition  party.  None  knew  better  than  their 
leaders  that  Mr.  Clay  was  at  heart  opposed  to  slavery ;  that 
he  had  set  his  face  resolutely  against  the  acquisition  of  Texas 
on  the  ground  that  it  would  extend  slave  territory  and  power, 
and  had  pledged  his  opposition  to  it,  and  that  this  alone  pre- 
vented his  receiving  enough  Southern  votes  to  ensure  his  elec- 
tion. They  knew,  too,  that  every  vote  for  a  candidate  of 
their  own  was  in  effect  given  to  the  nominee  of  the  slave- 
holders ;  yet  they  persisted  in  nominating  and  voting  for  Bir- 
ney,  which  deprived  Mr.  Clay  of  the  whole  electoral  vote  of 
N ew  York,  and  thus  ensured  his  defeat. 

Thus  the  nation  lost  the  last  chance  we  have  ever  had  of  a 
great  President,  and  the  best  opportunity  of  putting  the  slave- 
power,  as  it  is  called,  in  its  proper  place.  Had  Texas  been 
excluded,  the  contest  for  the  territories  would  have  ended 
there ;  and  we  can  hardly  doubt  that,  under  the  presidency  of 
such  a  man  as  Mr.  Clay,  whose  temper  was  at  the  same  time 
so  brave  and  conciliatory,  and  to  whose  course  we  owe  so 
much  in  appeasing  controversy  and  settling  difficulties,  some 
plan  would  have  been  devised  not  only  for  taking  the  question 
out  of  the  field  of  party  controversy,  but  for  the  gradual  re- 
moval of  its  worst  features,  and,  with  God's  assistance,  for  its 
eventual  extinction. 

But  the  first  consequence  of  the  election  of  Mr.  Polk  was 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  an  act  fruitful  of  evils,  and  the  war 
with  Mexico,  which  it  provoked,  and  the  spirit  of  aggression 
and  filibustering  which  it  fostered,  were  unquestionably  causes 
of  disease  in  our  body  politic,  tending  to  its  dissolution. 


13 


Could  Texas  have  existed  as  a  neighboring  State,  as  an  outlet 
to  all  the  violent  and  discontented  vagabonds  of  the  South, 
and  a  market  for  all  their  surplus  negroes,  it  would  have  been 
a  great  gain  to  us ;  and  the  more  power  they  acquired  as  a 
separate  nation,  whether  in  friendship  or  at  enmity  with  us, 
the  better.  As  a  barrier  to  all  future  acquisition  at  the  South, 
and  a  receptacle  for  all  the  population,  black  and  white,  which 
we  could  best  spare,  its  very  existence  would  have  added 
strength  to  our  free  institutions  and  purified  them. 

All  this  was  said  then,  but  without  effect  upon  those  in 
whose  hands  the  decision  rested,  men  who  called  themselves 
friends  of  the  negro  and  of  universal  liberty.  Was  it  fatuity 
or  was  it  corruption  ? 

T^his  naturally  leads  to  a  consideration  of  our  mode  of  nomi- 
nating and  choosing  our  highest  magistrate,  the  President  of 
the  United  States ;  and  here  the  perversions  of  our  electoral 
system  will  be  found  the  greatest  of  all. 

It  may  have  been  expected  by  the  wise  and  good  men  who 
framed  our  Constitution,  that  in  devising  this  plan  of  choice 
through  electoral  colleges,  and  giving  to  the  whole  work 
an  apparent  solemnity  and  dignity  which  the  occasion  de- 
manded, they  would  impress  upon  their  fellow-citizens,  to 
whom  this  great  trust  and  duty  was  committed,  a  solemn  sense 
of  their  obligation  to  their  country  and  posterity.  That  the 
gravest,  wisest,  purest  men  would  be  sought  for,  to  meet  in 
conclave,  and  choose  from  among  those  of  the  nation  most  dis- 
tinguished by  their  services,  their  talents,  and  their  virtues, 
one  to  whom  all  would  bow  as  most  worthy  to  conduct  the 
State.  Now  mark  the  result :  In  the  first  place,  we  have  a 
primary  meeting  organized  and  managed  as  those  for  common 
elections,  from  which  proceed  delegates  (whom  no  one  would 
trust  in  his  own  affairs)  to  a  State  caucus.  This  caucus  ap- 
points to  the  National  Party  Convention  men  with  whom  they 


14 


can  make  the  best  bargain  for  themselves.  The  next  step  is 
the  party  nomination  for  President,  the  most  important  of  all, 
taken  under  circumstances  the  most  adverse  possible  to  a  good 
selection.  Then  the  State  election,  by  a  doubtful  majority, 
in  which  citizens  have  only  a  choice  between  the  nominees  of 
the  great  parties.  Finally,  a  meeting  of  the  electoral  col- 
leges for  dumbshow  and  a  dictated  vote, — and  this  is  the 
nation's  choice  for  its  highest  office,  in  many  respects  an  un- 
controlled dictatorship  for  four  years.  And  who  is  the  na- 
tion's choice  for  its  highest  office  ?  A  man  of  the  finest  abili- 
ties, the  noblest  character,  the  most  distinguished  services  ? 
No !  The  man  who  is  admitted  to  be  superior  to  all,  even 
though  he  be  leader  of  one  of  the  great  parties,  will  probably 
lose  the  nomination  of  his  own  political  allies,  which  will  be 
given  instead  to  some  obscure  politician  of  moderate  abilities 
and  doubtful  integrity.  The  reason  is,  that  the  former  is 
not,  and  the  latter  is  an  available  candidate.  A  leading 
statesman  has  excited  jealousy,  has  committed  himself  to  cer- 
tain principles,  has  a  settled  policy  and  a  firm  will,  and  is  not 
to  be  dictated  to.  He  cannot  be  moulded  by  those  who 
manage  the  nomination,  will  not  engage  to  be  their  tool,  or  to 
place  in  their  hands  his  official  patronage.  He  has  his  own 
confidential  adherents,  and  will  select  his  advisers  and  high 
officials  from  among  them.  He  is,  in  a  word,  too  proud  a  man 
to  truckle  to  these  party  managers,  and  too  honest  a  one  to 
buy  his  election  by  the  spoils  of  political  victory.  Such  a  man 
will  not  do. 

An  available  candidate  may  be  one  who  has  some  source  of 
popularity  independent  of  political  services.  A  rough  and 
honest  soldier,  a  rude  backwoodsman  who  has  raised  himself 
from  the  humblest  condition,  has  sometimes  fairer  claims  to 
popularity  than  the  statesman  who  has  passed  through  a  life 
of  political  intrigue.    A  popular  sobriquet  is  better  than  a 


15 


title  of  honor  to  him.  Old  Tippecanoe,  with  his  log  cabin  and 
hard  cider,  old  Rough  and  Ready,  and  "  the  honest  Bargeman 
and  Rail-splitter,"  have  alone  in  forty  years  achieved  a  victory 
over  the  Democratic  party.*  In  such  cases,  the  corruptions 
and  malversations  of  a  preceding  administration  may  have 
rendered  statesmanship  a  suspicious  qualification,  and  a  repu- 
tation for  honesty  would  therefore  have  the  more  influence, 
while  the  rude  tastes  and  jovial  habits  of  the  candidate  in 
former  life  might  become  additional  sources  of  popularity. 
Those  who  look  out  for  such  a  candidate  to  offer  to  the  people, 
do  not  on  their  own  account  particularly  desire  ability,  and 
for  them,  honesty  may  be  a  very  inconvenient  quality  if  allied 
with  unreasonable  firmness.  They  would  rather  rely  on  inex- 
perience to  submit  in  everything  to  their  guidance,  and  indeed 
such  a  candidate  must  naturally  rely  upon  the  friends  to  whom 
he  owes  his  success,  and  gladly  promises  to  make  all  appoint- 
ments by  their  advice.  A  bargain  is  therefore  made,  which, 
if  he  be  an  honest  man,  he  will  bitterly  repent,  and  woe  to 
him  if  he  break  it.  But  these  instances  have  been  the  excep- 
tions, and  are  among  the  few  successful  efforts  of  the  party 
claiming  for  itself  pre-eminent  respectability. 

The  great  Democratic  party,  which  has  controlled  the  na- 
tion with  few  intervals,  has  not  had  occasion  to  descend  to 
such  resorts,  but  has  generally  nominated  a  man  who  has 
enough  political  experience  to  know  how  to  trim  his  sails  to 
the  breeze ;  enough  ability  and  dignity  to  fill  the  chair  of 
state  without  reproach;  of  easy  principles,  but  true  to  his  party 
obligations,  and  to  be  relied  on  by  the  managers  of  the  elec- 
tion that  they  shall  have  a  full  share  of  influence  and  patro- 
nage. 

*  So,  too,  with  our  gubernatorial  candidates.  The  supporters  of  an  anti- 
Deraocratic  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  showed  in  testimony  of  his  qualifi- 
cations his  ill-written  and  ill-spelt  receipts  as  a  wagoner. 


16 


It  is,  unhappily,  no  defamation  to  assert  that  through  the 
whole  process  of  our  Presidential  nominations,  from  the  pri- 
mary meeting  which  selects  a  member  for  the  State  caucus 
up  to  the  final  vote  in  the  electoral  college,  there  is  an  unin- 
terrupted intrigue  and  traffic  for  office  and  emolument,  till,  by 
a  triple  distillation  of  corruption,  we  have  presented  to  us  as 
a  result,  the  only  possible  successor  of  George  Washington. 

It  cannot  be  necessary  to  prove  this  to  any  one  who  has 
watched  the  progress  of  a  Presidential  canvass,  if  that  is  the 
proper  name  for  a  system  contrived  to  render  impossible  the 
intelligent  selection  and  the  honest  choice  of  the  whole  people. 

There  still  remains  to  be  noticed  the  most  monstrous  per- 
version of  the  original  design, — the  general  ticket,  a  system 
which  would  seem  to  have  been  contrived  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  throwing  the  nomination  into  the  hands  of  the  vilest 
political  blacklegs  in  the  great  States,  to  stifle  all  adverse 
majorities  in  the  several  counties  of  these  States,  to  override 
the  electoral  colleges  in  the  smaller  States,  and  eventually  to 
place  in  office  a  man  who  has  only  a  minority  of  the  popular 
votes, — it  might  be  only  a  small  minority, — and  sometimes,  as 
in  our  last  disastrous  election,  to  give  us  a  purely  sectional 
candidate  elected  by  a  bare  plurality. 

It  requires  but  little  reflection  to  perceive  that,  but  for  the 
general  ticket  system,  Mr.  Lincoln  would  not  have  been 
elected,  and  the  rebellion  of  the  South,  wanting  its  pretext, 
could  not  have  occurred. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  make  further  reference  to  the  mode  in 
which  are  chosen  the  delegates  to  the  great  national  party 
convention  for  nominating  a  President,  or  to  describe  the 
character  of  those  who  compose  it,  or  the  influences  which 
prevail  there.  It  is  notorious,  that  the  delegation  of  each 
State  is  managed  and  directed  by  one  or  more  skilful  tacti- 
cians, who  have  other  things  in  view  besides  the  honor  of  their 


IT 


country,  and  who  well  know  how  to  secure  at  the  same  time, 
every  party  and  personal  advantage.  A  man  who  can  offer  the 
entire  State  ticket  of  twenty  or  thirty  votes  has  carte  blanche 
for  himself  and  his  friends. 

The  rest  of  the  business  is  simply  a  farce,  got  up  in  con- 
formity with  an  obsolete  programme.  The  electoral  ticket  is 
taken  without  examination;  the  names  on  it  are  utterly  un- 
known to  the  greater  part  of  the  citizens.  If  the  requisite  ma- 
jority or  plurality  of  votes  can  only  be  had,  by  fair  means 
or  foul,  the  dumbshow  is  acted  at  the  State  capital,  and  the 
great  game  is  won. 

It  was  not  the  intention  of  our  Constitution,  to  give  the 
choice  of  President  to  the  States,  but  to  the  people,  or  rather 
the  trusted  and  trustworthy  delegates  of  the  people  of  the 
whole  country;  and  that  every  section  and  every  class  of  men 
should,  if  possible,  be  fairly  represented.  "Were  the  Presiden- 
tial electors  chosen  in  each  Congressional  district  by  majori- 
ties, we  should  not  indeed  obtain  a  perfect  consummation  of 
this  wish,  but  there  would  be  at  least  an  approximation  towards 
it.  Two  results,  however,  of  incalculable  advantage  would  be 
attained:  first,  the  frustration  of  the  mighty  system  of  in- 
trigue and  corruption  which  now  prevails;  and,  secondly,  the 
breaking  up  of  the  overwhelming  power  of  the  great  States. 
No  large  State  could  give  its  entire  vote  to  one  candidate;  in 
fact,  each  of  the  great  parties  would  secure  its  own  election 
in  every  district  where  it  had  strength;  and  above  all,  neither 
party  could  afford  to  be  sectional,  from  the  necessity  of  seek- 
ing some  of  its  votes  in  opposite  sections  of  the  country.  Thus 
every  question  dangerous  to  the  Union  would  be  stifled,  and 
the  pandering  to  local  prejudice  and  local  fanaticism,  which 
has  brought  about  all  our  unhappy  divisions,  would  be  equally 
reprobated  by  the  politician  and  the  patriot. 

2 


18 


Great  space  has  been  given  to  the  subject  of  primary  elec- 
tions, of  caucus  nominations,  and  party  management,  because 
these  are  the  chief  evils  of  our  American  representative  sys- 
tem. We  have  now  to  consider,  as  briefly  as  possible,  the 
operation  of  our  actual  elections. 

It  has  been  thought  by  many,  who  have  based  their  opinion 
on  the  result,  that  an  electoral  system  which  has  tended  and 
still  tends  more  and  more  to  exclude  from  office  the  best  men, 
and  to  place  in  our  National  and  State  Legislatures  a  body  of 
political  intriguers,  among  whom  corruption  is  so  prevalent  as 
to  cease  to  be  a  reproach,  must  have  its  radical  vice  in  the 
character  of  the  constituency;  that,  in  fact,  the  suffrage  is 
too  widely  extended,  and  that  some  means  must  be  found  to 
limit  it  by  a  qualification  of  property,  especially  in  land. 
"  Those  who  own  the  country,"  say  they,  "should  govern  the 
country."  But  there  is  good  reason  for  asserting,  that  under  a 
Republican  government,  the  first  principle  should  be  to  extend 
the  suffrage  to  all  who  can  appreciate  it  as  an  obligation,  and 
value  it  as  a  privilege.  No  inhabitants  as  a  class,  however 
humble,  should  be  debarred  from  an  easy  acquisition  of  the 
right;  but,  in  order  to  give  the  electoral  privilege  a  value  to 
its  possessor,  he  must  owe  it  to  some  effort  of  his  own,  or  have 
inherited  it  from  a  worthy  parent.  It  must  be  something 
which  the  idle  profligate  vagabond,  the  criminal,  the  brawler, 
and  the  sot  have  forfeited  or  never  acquired.  This  preroga- 
tive of  citizenship,  he  should  hold  as  an  honor,  a  badge  of  re- 
spectability, and  every  man  worthy  of  possessing  it  will  gladly 
work  for  it,  and  try  to  use  it  to  his  own  real  advantage  and 
honor,  and  if  so,  to  that  of  the  community.  The  only  tests 
we  have  for  this  qualification,  are  material  ones ;  but  they  may 
and  ought  to  be  within  the  reach  of  any  industrious  man,  and 
should  be  various  in  form  in  order  to  give  no  undue  advantage 
to  any  kind  of  property  or  department  of  industry ;  thus,  the 


19 


possession  or  lease  of  a  small  portion  of  cultivated  land,  the 
sole  tenancy  of  a  dwelling-house,  a  small  investment  in  public 
stocks,  the  previous  year's  service  in  a  salaried  employment, 
or  a  poll-tax  to  the  value  of  at  least  a  bushel  of  wheat  or  a 
day's  labor:  these,  or  such  as  these,  would  give  some  guaran- 
tee of  respectability,  and  the  greater  number  who  can  present 
themselves  with  such  qualifications,  the  sounder  and  safer  will 
be  our  Republican  Institutions. 

To  inspire  an  honest  pride  in  the  rank  of  citizen,  we  must 
take  care  not  to  share  it  with  those  who  are  the  objects  of  his 
contempt,  and  the  self-respect  which  will  be  felt  by  the  poor 
laborer,  when  he  has  established  by  his  industry,  his  right  to 
a  political  equality  with  the  richest  of  the  land,  will  surely 
give  an  impulse  to  higher  aspirations,  and  often  be  the  first 
step  to  personal  distinction. 

Such  a  proposition  as  this,  cannot  be  charged  with  aristoc- 
racy or  exclusiveness ;  all  that  it  asserts  is  this,  That  an  inde- 
pendence and  a  real  interest  in  the  prosperity  of  his  country, 
ought  to  be  requisites  in  an  elector,  without  which,  he  will 
not  put  a  just  value  on  the  franchise.  The  class  of  emi- 
grants, who  have  not  thought  citizenship  worth  their  fee  of 
naturalization,  and  the  native  inhabitants  who  have  valued  it 
below  their  poll-tax,  are  surely  not  worthy  of  the  privileges 
and  that  there  are  many  such,  is  proved  by  these  payments 
being  almost  always  part  of  a  candidate's  expenses.  How 
much  more  is  paid  for  individual  votes,  only  those  who  manage 
elections  can  tell.  It  cannot  be  supposed  that  bribery  in  this 
form,  is  practicable  to  any  great  extent. 

But  there  is  a  form  of  corruption  much  more  injurious  and 
iniquitous,  because  the  price  stipulated  is  to  be  paid  by  the 
successful  candidate  in  the  form  of  office  or  lucrative  contracts 
to  those  who  have  brought  their  influence  to  bear  on  the  elec- 
tion.   There  is  a  class  of  men  in  every  populous  district,  espe- 


20 


cially  our  cities,  themselves  of  no  great  consideration,  but  in 
positions  which  give  them  large  influence  over  a  number  of 
the  humbler  inhabitants.  These  men  have  it  in  their  power  to 
offer  to  either  candidate  a  certain  number  of  votes,  and  so  sure 
are  they  of  their  commodity,  that  when  there  are  a  number 
of  offices  to  be  filled  at  an  election,  they  have  been  known  to 
traffic  them  to  a  candidate  on  one  ticket,  for  as  many  votes  for 
an  office  on  another  ticket,  in  the  success  of  which  they  felt 
more  interest;  and  of  such  uncertain  domicile  is  this  class 
of  votes,  that  those  who  contract  to  supply  them  often  can 
transfer  a  score  or  more  of  them  from  one  electoral  district  to 
another  on  the  eve  of  an  election.  It  is  needless  to  enlarge 
on  the  venality  of  this  class  of  vote-brokers,  but  the  purification 
of  the  suffrage  in  the  manner  just  proposed,  would  probably  put 
an  end  to  the  business,  as  the  plan  hereafter  to  be  proposed  for 
a  united  suffrage  would  unquestionably  do.  This  class  of  men 
can  indeed  only  find  an  occupation  in  the  large  centres  of  popu- 
lation. There  is,  however,  another  class  of  working  politicians, 
both  in  town  and  country,  whose  services  must  be  secured.  The 
orator  of  the  tap-room,  the  needy  lawyer  of  the  county  town, 
who  spends  his  evenings  at  the  store  or  tavern,  doing  the  work 
of  the  candidate  and  party,  deserves'  his  reward  and  obtains 
it.  He  is  indispensable  under  the  present  system,  and  may 
be  a  very  honest  man. 

This  reference  to  our  custom  of  voting  at  the  same  time  for 
a  number  of  offices,  recalls  an  omission  in  speaking  of  the 
various  corruptions  in  our  nominating  caucuses.  In  framing 
these  tickets,  especially  for  county  and  corporation  offices,  it 
cannot  be  pretended  that  the  nomination  is  made  with  refer- 
ence to  the  fitness  of  the  person  proposed.  It  is  a  pure  bar- 
gain among  the  leading  managers  of  the  party,  and  in  conse- 
quence, the  greatest  pressure  is  brought  to  bear  on  the  electors 
to  give  success  to  the  whole  ticket,  and  he  is  denounced  as  a 


21 


traitor  to  his  party,  who  ventures  to  scratch  from  his  ticket 
the  name  of  a  man  he  knows  to  be  dishonest,  even  if  the  office 
he  aspires  to  be  one  of  the  largest  pecuniary  trust. 

This  system  of  "bullying,"  is  worse  than  bribery.  The 
tyranny  of  opinion  is  often  supported  by  violence :  the  chief 
end  of  preliminary  ward  meetings  in  our  large  cities  is  to  or- 
ganize the  party  forces ;  and  the  great  public  assemblages  or 
mass  meetings  have  no  other  conceivable  object  than  to  im- 
pose the  overpowering  influence  of  numbers, — the  worst  but 
often  the  most  successful  of  arguments. 

In  the  mother  country,  the  canvassing  is  conducted  with 
some  corruption  and  some  violence,  but  at  least  with  a  better 
show  of  fairness.  From  the  opening  meeting  to  the  final 
polling,  the  two  candidates  and  their  friends  address  all  the 
voters,  and  in  the  very  animated  scenes  on  the  hustings,  argu- 
ments are  exchanged  as  well  as  jokes  and  taunts;  at  all 
events,  the  whole  constituency  knows  all  that  both  sides 
have  to  say  for  themselves.  It  is,  in  a  measure,  the  same 
thing  in  the  Southern  States.  At  the  great  political  meet- 
ings called  barbecues,  as  well  as  at  the  hustings,  in  those 
States,  where  viva  voce  voting  is  maintained,  the  orators  of 
both  sides  are  listened  to,  and  the  citizen,  however  humble,  has 
a  better  right  to  the  conviction  on  which  he  votes,  than  the 
well-educated  inhabitants  of  a  Northern  town  who  has  only 
listened  to  a  one-sided  harangue,  or  taken  his  facts  and  his 
principles  from  the  party  newspaper  which  is  his  daily  reading. 

It  may  be  thought  a  somewhat  bold  assertion,  that  the  re- 
spectable citizen  who,  when  a  great  question  is  agitating  the 
passions  of  the  nation,  daily  reads  the  newspapers  of  his  own 
party  and  none  others,  who  avoids  the  society  of  those  of  oppo- 
site opinions,  and  has  brought  himself  to  believe  that  loyalty 
consists  in  supporting  every  measure  advocated  by  his  party, 
is  not  better  fitted  to  give  his  vote  intelligently,  than  the 


22 


humble  and  illiterate  laborer  who  gets  his  notions  of  politics 
in  places  of  resort  which  the  other  would  think  disreputable. 
But  this  is  very  often  the  fact. 

When  the  character  of  the  leading  newspapers  is  considered, 
sold  as  they  are  to  party ;  how  utterly  every  principle  yields 
with  them  to  considerations  of  policy ;  how  truth  is  suppressed 
or  garbled,  and  falsehood  unblushingly  asserted;  how  villain- 
ous acts  are  palliated  and  bad  men  praised ;  how  the  Constitu- 
tion is  contemned  and  the  law  of  nations  and  of  war,  as  well 
as  every  dictate  of  our  holy  religion,  disregarded ;  how  opinions 
which  to-day  are  advocated  are  repudiated  on  the  morrow  ;*  we 
cannot  help  perceiving  that  the  moral  poison  from  this  cor- 
rupted source  must  permeate  the  minds  of  those  who  make 
such  matter  their  daily  food,  till  at  last  the  distinction  between 
right  and  wrong  is  obliterated,  and  acts  and  opinions  are 
justified  at  which  a  little  while  before  the  conscience  would 
have  stood  aghast,  and  with  which  we  may  hope  it  will  still  be 
shocked  when  the  spell  is  broken. 

The  national  heart  cannot  always  be  corrupted  by  unholy 
passions ;  the  national  intellect  cannot  always  be  blinded. 
Roused  to  action  by  unaccustomed  distress  and  difficulties,  it 
will  speak  for  itself,  and  demand  other  leaders  and  other 
organs.     The  truth  must  prevail. 

The  people  are  beginning  to  be  convinced  that  those  called 
their  representatives  are  unworthy  of  the  great  charge  com- 
mitted to  them.  The  reason  is  now  to  be  told  them, — that 
they  are  not  their  representatives.  Can  those  represent  a 
people  in  any  office  with  whose  selection  they  have  nothing  to 
do?   Whom  they  have  perhaps  accepted  as  their  candidates 

*  It  is  not  intended  to  apply  this  character  to  the  whole  newspaper  press, 
although  the  number  of  independent  journals  is  very  small  which  always 
dare  to  give  utterance  to  their  own  convictions. 


23 


with  reluctance,  and  only  voted  for  under  necessity  and  party 
dictation  ?  Whose  very  nomination  may  have  driven  many 
from  the  polls  with  disgust,  and  who  were  opposed  from  the 
first  by  the  votes  of  a  large  minority  of  worthy  and  intelligent 
citizens,  who  distrusted  their  honesty  or  abhorred  their  poli- 
tical opinions  and  aims  ?  And  who  still  work  against  them, 
in  the  hope  of  driving  from  power,  at  the  next  election,  men 
who,  in  their  opinion,  are  ready  to  sacrifice  their  dearest 
interests,  and  those  of  their  country  ?  Unquestionably,  No  ! 
And  thus  our  boasted  system  of  popular  representation,  which 
the  wisdom  of  antiquity  having  failed  to  invent,  it  was  re- 
served to  our  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors  to  devise,  has  proved  in 
our  hands  a  failure,  a  preposterous  fiction.  No  institutions 
have  stood  long,  which  have  a  falsehood  at  their  base, — nor 
can  ours. 

If  it  were  necessary,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  trace  in  the 
vices  of  our  representative  system,  here  exposed,  the  causes  of 
all  our  National  calamities ;  but  we  may  accept  as  an  esta- 
blished truth  the  utterance  of  the  people's  voice,  now  heard  in 
every  quarter,  that  our  political  leaders  are  chiefly  answerable 
for  the  cruel  and  unnatural  war  now  rending  every  tie  which 
common  origin,  a  common  religion,  a  common  history,  and 
nearer  and  dearer  relations  than  these,  had  been  forming  since 
our  ancestors  sought  on  these  shores  a  refuge  from  poverty 
and  oppression  in  other  lands. 

It  is  a  false  assertion  that  our  diversities  of  climate  and  oc- 
cupation and  domestic  institutions  necessarily  dissociated  us 
in  feelings,  in  interests,  and  political  objects ;  that  Ave  could 
not  live  together  in  peace.  Never  were  national  institutions 
better  designed  for  harmonizing  and  maintaining  a  great 
people,  and  leading  it  on  in  a  course  of  boundless  prosperity. 
Like  the  work  of  the  Divine  hand  in  the  mechanism  of  the 
heavens,  and  the  contrivances  of  organic  life ;  or,  like  the 


24 


humbler  work  of  man  in  the  great  engines  of  manufacturing 
industry,  and  the  beautiful  inventions  of  naval  architecture, 
such  was  the  fitness  of  our  National  and  State  institutions  to 
work  together,  such  the  happy  adaptation  of  checks  and  ba- 
lances (some  of  the  most  important  of  which  consisted  in  the 
very  contrariety  of  our  occupations  and  form  of  property)  that 
justice  and  equal  rights  were  everywhere  maintained;  and  it 
is  incredible  that  our  great  Republic  should  have  subsisted  for 
more  than  seventy  years  without  those  very  differences.  . 

From  many  a  difficulty  with  foreign  nations,  from  many  an 
internal  convulsion,  from  many  a  mischievous  reform,  we  have 
been  saved  by  the  opposing  forces  on  one  side  or  the  other ; 
and,  if  our  financial  policy  has  not  always  been  wise  or  just, 
yet  the  sources  of  wealth  were  everywhere  so  great,  the  pro- 
ducts of  agriculture  so  various  and  abundant,  and  our  manu- 
facturing industry  and  commerce  so  enormous,  that  we  became 
as  a  united  nation  the  most  self-sustaining  people  upon  earth ; 
every  department  of  labor  furnishing  and  demanding  the  sup- 
plies of  the  other.  But  for  the  meddling  fanaticism  of  a  sec- 
tional party,  working  for  years  with  insidious  zeal,  and  the 
hatred  it  naturally  engendered,  increased  perhaps  among  the 
indolent  and  thriftless  portions  of  the  Southern  populace,  by 
envy  of  the  greater  prosperity  of  the  North  (sentiments  on 
both  sides,  which  served  as  ready  weapons  to  those  whose  only 
object  was  to  gain  political  power  by  stimulating  prejudices 
which  they  often  did  not  share)  there  never  would  have  been 
a  serious  quarrel  between  North  and  South. 

The  opportunity  was  thus  given  through  our  vicious  system  of 
representation  to  a  few  leaders  on  both  sides,  whose  aim  was 
mastery  or  the  disruption  of  the  Union,  to  break  up  a  Go- 
vernment justly  dear  to  great  majorities  in  every  division  of 
our  country,  and  to  inaugurate  a  war  the  end  of  which 
no  one  can  predict, — but  which,  whether  it  be  the  subjuga- 


25 


tion  and  forced  submission  of  the  South,  or  the  breaking 
up  of  our  confederacy,  may  in  its  consequences  be  almost 
equally  deplorable.  Under  any  circumstances,  the  working 
machinery  of  our  Constitution  is  broken  down ;  the  Govern- 
ment, as  it  is,  cannot  go  on  much  longer. 
What  remedy  is  there  ? 

Some  persons  seem  to  look  to  Military  Despotism,  which 
history  shows  has  been  the  ordinary  refuge  of  a  people  from 
Democratic  misrule.  But  it  is  a  desperate  remedy,  which 
nothing  but  anarchy  can  justify.  It  never  can  restore  a 
nation's  healthful  vigor — only  preserve  a  paralyzed  existence. 
Our  people  are  too  good  and  sensible,  too  proud  and  brave 
for  this.  They  ought  to  be  able  to  choose  their  rulers  ; 
and  surely  could  do  so,  if  our  present  miserable  machinery 
for  popular  elections  were  cleared  away. 

Mr.  Hare  is  believed  to  be  the  first  writer  who  published  to 
the  world  the  true  principle  of  popular  elections,  viz.,  that 
the  person  elected  to  a  legislative  office  should  represent  a 
totality.  That  his  constituents  should  be  voters  among  whom 
there  must  be  no  opposition.  That  those  who,  according  to 
the  system  now  prevailing,  are  in  the  minority,  and  not  in 
any  way  represented,  should  be  able  to  combine  with  others 
of  common  interests  and  principles,  wherever  they  can  be 
found,  and  return  a  representative  of  their  own. 

His  plan,  which  regards  England  alone,  mgy  be  briefly  ex- 
plained as  follows : 

Firstly.  There  must  be  secured  a  registry  of  all  the  quali- 
fied voters  in  the  kingdom,  and  the  number  being  ascertained, 
this  amount,  or  what  perhaps  would  be  practically  better, 
the  largest  number  of  votes  ever  given  in  a  general  election 
must  be  divided  by  the  number  of  representatives  to  be 
chosen, — the  product  of  this  division  being  the  number  of 


26 


votes  which  each  member  of  Parliament  would  represent,  and 
must  really  obtain,  to  secure  his  election. 

Secondly.  Every  voter  is  to  be  supplied  from  the  office  of 
General  Registry  with  a  certified  ticket  or  voting  paper, 
on  which  he  is  to  inscribe  the  name  of  the  person  he  would 
prefer  as  his  representative,  and  add  from  the  whole  list  of 
candidates  previously  published,  the  names  of  those  he  would 
select  as  his  second  and  third  choice,  and  as  many  more  as  he 
pleases.  The  voting  paper  being  handed  in  at  the  place  of 
election,  they  must  be  forwarded  to  the  Registrar's  Office  for 
examination,  where  all  who  have  obtained  the  requisite  num- 
ber of  votes  by  inscription  on  the  first  line  of  the  voting 
paper,  will  be  declared  elected. 

As  it  is  presumed  that  many  gentlemen  of  distinguished 
talents  and  popularity  will  be  the  first  choice  of  a  larger 
number  of  voters  than  they  require,  their  names  are  to  be 
stricken  off  as  first  choice  on  all  the  surplus,  leaving  another 
name  first  on  the  list,  which  being  collated  with  the  remaining 
voting  tickets,  will  help  to  secure  the  election  of  another  can- 
didate. This  process  is  to  be  continued  until,  if  possible,  the 
whole  number  of  representatives  is  made  up. 

The  scheme  is,  it  is  thought,  correctly  described,  without 
entering  into  all  the  particulars ;  but  it  does  not  appear  what 
device  is  found  out  for  filling  the  remaining  seats,  in  case, 
after  the  whole  examination  of  voting  papers,  there  are  a 
few  which  have^  not  secured  the  full  complement  of  votes. 
It  may  be  done  either  by  taking  majorities,  or  referring  back 
the  voting  papers  for  a  new  election. 

It  may  perhaps  be  thought  presumption  to  offer  an  opinion 
as  to  the  practical  working  of  such  a  system  of  voting  in 
England.  With  their  limited  suffrage,  it  might  be  practicable ; 
but  two  serious  objections  occur.  In  so  enormous  a  consti- 
tuency— the  whole  body  of  voters  in  a  country — few  can 


27 


know  anything  of  the  qualifications  of  the  different  candidates, 
or  even  their  political  principles.  After  naming  the  first 
choice,  the  other  names  will,  in  most  cases,  be  dictated,  or 
selected  on  hearsay,  or  at  haphazard;  and  if  they  are  all  to  be 
written,  unless  an  officer  at  the  polls  inscribes  them,  bad  pen- 
manship would  make  difficulties,  and  great  frauds  would  pro- 
bably be  practised  on  unlettered  voters. 

-The  second  difficulty  occurs  at  the  Registrar's  office,  where 
it  is  conceivable  that  many  great  frauds  may  be  practised, 
which  we  need  not  at  present  advert  to.  It  would  seem,  at 
first  sight,  very  easy  to  count  the  voting  papers  and  arrange 
the  voting  lists  according  to  the  order  of  preference  by  the 
voters ;  though  this  indeed  would  require  enormous  labor  and 
an  army  of  clerks,  with  whom  undoubted  integrity  would  be 
indispensable.  There  would  indeed  be  no  doubt  about  the 
election  of  those  who  have  the  full  complement  of  votes  on  the 
first  line  of  the- voting  tickets.  But  when  the  names  are  to 
be  stricken  off  of  the  surplus  tickets,  from  what  tickets  shall 
they  be  erased  ?  For  the  second  in  order  after  the  successful 
candidate  is  not  always  the  same.  Are  the  clerks  or  the 
registrar  to  have  the  right  to  decide  who  among  the  '''second 
liners"  shall  have  the  vote?  Who  shall  select  the  tickets  for 
erasure?  This  is  an  opportunity  for  favor  and  corruption 
which  cannot  be  admitted,  and  would  be  fatal  to  the  honest 
working  of  the  system.  Mr.  Hare  can  perhaps  suggest  a 
remedy ;  but  as  none  now  occurs  to  the  writer,  he  will  pro- 
ceed to  explain  his  own  plan,  which  may  have  many  defects 
of  its  own,  but  is  at  least  not  liable  to  these  objections. 

As  in  the  plan  of  Mr.  Hare,  it  is  necessary  that  the  electo- 
ral lists  should  be  made  out  for  a  certain  time  before  each 
election.  This  interval  might  be  six  months,  when  a  full 
alphabetical  catalogue  of  all  the  qualified  votes  on  the  Regis- 


28 


trar's  lists  should  be  made  out,  printed,  published  in  the 
newspapers,  and  the  local  lists  affixed  in  public  places.  For 
three  months  after  this,  there  should  be  given  an  opportunity  to 
claim  the  right  of  voting  by  those  whose  names  are  not  on  the 
lists ;  after  which,  there  should  be  no  claim  received  or  allowed. 
The  number  of  qualified  voters  in  the  whole  of  a  State  having 
been  ascertained,  this  number,  or  (as  is  suggested  in  Mr. 
Hare's  plan)  that  of  the  largest  number  of  votes  ever  polled, 
or  a  mean  between  them,  must  be  divided  by  the  number  of 
representatives  allotted  to  the  State  in  the  national  Congress; 
or,  in  case  of  the  State  elections,  by  the  number  which  fills 
the  quota  of  either  house  of  Assembly.  This  number  being 
fixed  as  the  constituency  of  each  representative  to  be  chosen, 
he  is  expected  to  procure  the  full  number  of  votes,  or  a  very 
near  approximation  to  it  ;  but  wTith  liberty  to  seek  them  any- 
where within  the  limits  of  the  State,  among  the  qualified 
voters.  The  reason  why  the  dividend  may  safely  be  reduced 
below  that  of  the  whole  number  of  qualified  votes,  is  that  the 
whole  vote  of  a  State  is  never  given,  and  the  proportion 
abstaining  can  always  be  calculated  with  a  great  approach  to 
accuracy. 

Immediately  after  the  date  of  closing  the  Registrar's  office 
for  claims,  he  should  issue  voting  tickets  or  certificates  of  the 
right  of  suffrage  to  every  person  entitled  to  it,  a  separate  one 
for  every  office  he  has  the  right  to  vote  for,  so  prepared  as  to 
guard  against  forgery  or  alteration.  This  voting  certificate  is 
not  understood  to  be  only  an  authority  to  the  citizen  to  give 
his  ballot  at  the  polls,  but  a  ticket  to  be  assigned  to  the  can- 
didate of  his  choice  in  writing  before  an  officer  appointed  for 
such  purpose,  as,  for  instance,  a  notary  public.  And  this  as- 
signment might  be  made  at  any  time  within  ten  days  of  the 
election,  either  at  the  notary's  office,  or,  in  case  of  inability 
from  sickness,  at  the  house  of  the  elector. 


29 


The  next  point  to  be  considered  is  the  nomination  of  candi- 
dates. For  this  we  may  find  an  example  in  England,  where 
primary  meetings  and  all  their  abominations  have  been  un- 
known. Any  body  of  respectable  citizens,  whose  names  and 
position  might  be  expected  to  give  weight  to  their  recommen- 
dation, might  meet  in  public  or  private  and  nominate  a  can- 
didate to  represent  themselves  and  all  others  with  whom  they 
were  united  in  interest  or  in  questions  of  public  policy. 

Thus  we  may  suppose  the  great  industrial  divisions  of  our 
country,  the  commercial,  manufacturing,  agricultural,  or 
mining  interests  would  present  their  separate  candidates ;  se- 
lecting from  among  men  of  the  highest  ability  in  the  country, 
those  who  will  best  sustain  their  cause  in  the  public  councils 
of  the  nation,  leaving  them  unpledged  in  other  matters.  The 
candidate  being  named,  the  meeting  would  then  nominate  a 
canvassing  committee  consisting  of  fifty  or  five  hundred  mem- 
bers, whose  names  should  be  all  immediately  published,  as  well 
as  the  proceedings  of  the  meeting  and  their  address  to  the 
public. 

The  nomination  might  be  made  immediately  after  the  pub- 
lication of  the  electoral  list,  and  the  canvass  at  once  com- 
menced. This  may  be  done  as  in  England,  by  approaching 
the  electors  at  their  homes,  or  addressing  them  at  meetings, 
explaining  the  objects  of  the  nominating  body,  and  giving  as- 
surances of  the  character  and  principles  of  the  candidate, 
procuring  the  promise  of  votes,  and  continuing  their  progress 
through  the  country  till  their  complement  was  made  up,  and 
their  work  done.  The  electors  would  then  present  themselves 
before  the  notary  to  assign  their  votes,  and  the  election  would 
be  complete. 

From  the  great  number  of  votes  to  be  secured,  it  might 
seem,  at  first  sight,  that  the  canvass  would  be  peculiarly  la- 
borious, but  the  difficulty  is  not  so  great  as  it  appears. 


30 


It  being  understood  that  immediately  after  the  nomination 
a  publication  is  to  be  made  stating  the  name,  character,  and 
principles  of  the  nominee,  the  names  of  the  committee,  and 
the  place  of  their  headquarters  or  central  office,  at  "which  all 
■who  favor  the  election  may  be  invited  to  hand  in  their  names, 
we  may  readily  suppose  a  large  number  will  be  voluntarily 
offered ;  moreover,  the  circuit  of  the  committee  need  not  be 
very  large,  for,  as  the  nomination  is  made  by  the  representa- 
tives of  some  great  interest  or  leading  opinion,  the  field  of 
inquiry  is  much  narrowed,  if  not  entirely  confined  to  citizens 
of  cognate  principles  or  interests,  so  that  the  canvassers  would 
know  exactly  among  what  class  of  men  to  find  their  votes. 

And  here  appears  one  of  the  chief  recommendations  of  the 
system,  inasmuch  as  it  tends  to  unite  together  all  the  grades 
of  society  in  the  support  of  the  same  candidate  ;  for  the 
moment  a  nomination  is  made  of  a  gentleman  of  eminent 
worth  and  abilities,  who  is  to  be  the  special  representative  of 
one  of  the  great  interests  of  the  country,  he  ought  to  be 
equally  secure  of  the  support  of  the  great  proprietors,  or 
heads  of  the  business,  and  of  every  one  whose  present  main- 
tenance and  future  hopes  are  involved  in  the  success  of  that 
great  department,  whether  commerce,  manufactures,  agricul- 
ture, mining,  or  the  various  other  subdivisions  of  industry. 

The  prosperity  of  commerce  is  not  less  important  to  the 
merchant  than  it  is  to  the  ship-builder  or  chandler,  the  sail- 
maker,  as  well  as  the  sailor,  the  truckman  or  the  stevedore. 
That  of  manufactures  equally  involves  the  mill-owner,  the 
machinist,  the  spinner,  the  weaver  and  the  numerous  bands 
of  operatives  connected  with  the  great  establishments.  Under 
the  proposed  system  of  representation,  it  would  become  the 
business  of  the  heads  of  every  branch  of  trade,  not  only  to 
show  by  argument  to  every  one  in  their  employ  the  identity 
of  their  interests,  but  to  prove  it  to  them  by  affording  the 


31 


best  possible  wages,  and  perhaps  giving  a  special  interest  in 
the  profits ;  moreover,  to  secure  their  regard  by  kind  atten- 
tions and  considerate  treatment.  By  these  means,  mutual 
good  feeling  and  dependence  would  be  created  in  the  fairest 
possible  way,  and  a  sort  of  sentiment  aroused  analogous  to 
clanship.  Political  economy  would  cease  to  be  a  matter  of 
cold  calculation.  The  hard-hearted  mill-owner,  the  ill-paid, 
disheartened  and  debased  operative  would  be  replaced  by 
workmen  and  employers  who  know  and  trust  each  other, — 
sharing  prosperity  and  adversity  without  envy  or  discontent, — 
holding  the  same  views  of  politics  and  government,  and  in  the 
choice  of  their  representatives  always  united. 

In  taking  the  great  industrial  interests  of  our  country  as 
the  chief  bonds  of  union,  and  the  most  probable  and  efficient 
combinations  in  nominating  for  representative  offices,  I  do  not 
forget  that  there  are  other  and  much  higher  principles  ac- 
tuating men,  even  in  their  views  of  government ;  for  although 
almost  all  our  legislation  has  reference  to  property,  and  the 
chief  machinery  of  administration  is  for  its  protection,  yet 
there  are  also  some  other  and  higher  ends,  affecting  our  re- 
ligious and  moral  natures,  which  it  may  be  possible  to  promote 
or  establish  by  government  means.  That  these  would  be  over- 
looked or  neglected  by  the  eminent  men  we  may  suppose 
elected  by  the  great  industrial  bodies  of  the  country  is  not  to 
be  supposed.  Religion,  education,  science,  art,  all  not  only 
aid  the  success  of  each  department,  but,  being  essential  to 
human  progress  and  the  happiness  and  honor  of  life,  they 
would  be  peculiarly  the  objects  of  encouragement  in  assem- 
blies, where  men  of  the  highest  education  and  worth  would 
take  the  place  now  occupied  by  political  adventurers. 

But  the  popular  mind  does  not  always  work  with  regularity, 
and  sometimes  refuses  to  run  in  the  old  track,  though  that 
lead  to  success  and  prosperity.    At  times  our  citizens,  or  a 


32 


portion  of  them,  appear  to  forget  their  own  interest,  and  even 
their  duties,  and,  embracing  the  opinions  of  the  enthusiastic 
reformers  of  society,  insist  on  carrying  into  action  their  newly 
learnt  principles.  Let,  then,  the  apostles  of  social  and  politi- 
cal reform  be  heard ;  let  them  even  have  a  place  in  our  legis- 
lative assemblies,  if  they  can  secure  the  requisite  number  of 
votes ;  let  the  advocates  of  emancipation,  or  temperance,  or 
antimasonry,  or  agrarianism  make  their  nominations,  canvass 
for  votes,  and,  if  they  can,  elect  their  member ;  but  let  them 
not  combine  with  any  other  organization,  corrupt  the  principle 
of  representation,  and  purchase,  by  the  transfer  of  their  votes, 
the  advocacy  of  projects  which  have  no  affinity  with  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  great  industrial  parties  forming  themselves  in 
their  neighborhood. 

Should  the  representatives  of  these  opinions  obtain  an 
election,  they  would  have  the  best  opportunity  of  advocating 
them.  They  would  be  listened  to  by  the  first  minds  in  the 
country,  and  it  might  be  that  the  reforms  they  urge  would  in 
some  manner  or  to  some  extent  be  adopted ;  or,  having  been 
confuted  and  rejected  in  the  great  council  of  the  nation,  rep- 
resenting, as  it  would  do,  the  whole  people,  they  would  sink 
with  their  advocates  into  insignificance  and  silence. 

But  we  must  now  return  from  this  digression  to  the  plan 
of  voting,  which  has  not  yet  been  fully  developed. 

The  quota  of  electoral  tickets  having  been  completely  made 
up  and  assigned  to  the  member  elect,  he  will  retain  them  until 
he  presents  them  to  the  official  of  the  House  to  which  he  is  cho- 
sen, as  his  unquestioned  and  unquestionable  certificate  of  elec- 
tion. Should  he  have  had  the  offer  of  a  larger  number  of  votes 
than  is  necessary  for  his  election,  he  has  only  to  suggest  their 
transfer  to  some  other  candidate  of  similar  views  and  princi- 
ples who  had  not  yet  made  up  his  complement.    In  this  man- 


33 


ner,  the  minorities  would  coalesce  until  they  formed  complete 
constituencies. 

Thus  far,  each  elected  member  would  represent  a  whole,  and 
by  the  process  above  described,  we  may  reasonably  conclude 
that  most  of  the  places  would  be  filled ;  but  as  it  is  hardly 
possible  that  the  whole  number  of  members  should  be  elected, 
each  with  the  full  complement  of  votes  he  is  supposed  to  rep- 
resent, it  is  to  be  considered  in  what  way  the  seats  still  vacant 
from  a  deficiency  of  votes  are  to  be  filled. 

It  would  probably  be  as  near  an  approximation  as  need  be 
to  the  principle  of  the  above  scheme  of  voting,  if  those  candi- 
dates who  had  received  the  greatest  number  short  of  totality 
of  votes  should  be  declared  elected,  provided  they  presented 
the  tickets  of  two-thirds  of  the  number  of  their  constituency ; 
and  if  at  last,  in  consequence  of  the  number  of  candidates, 
there  should  still  be  a  place  unfilled  by  a  member  qualified 
by  such  a  vote,  a  new  election  should  be  called,  at  which  the 
voting  tickets  which  had  not  been  effective  at  the  previous 
election  might  be  again  used  according  to  the  system  above 
described.* 

An  advantage  which  is  almost  certain  to  accrue  from  this 
system,  would  be  the  extinction  of  bribery,  or  the  purchase  of 
votes.  The  great  number  of  votes  to  be  procured  would  almost 
render  it  impossible,  and  the  facility  of  obtaining  them  in  any 

*  It  might  be  objected  to  this  plan,  that  it  would  only  work  well  in  the 
larger  States,  at  least  in  the  elections  for  Congress ;  that  in  the  smaller,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  secure  a  totality  vote.  In  that  case,  a  majority  of 
two-thirds  might  be  accepted  as  the  nearest  possible  approach ;  or  the  can« 
didate  might  be  permitted  to  seek  his  votes  in  the  bordering  States  ;  for  the 
members  of  our  lower  House  of  Congress  represent  people,  and  not  terri- 
tory; and  with  certain  limitations,  the  State  boundary  might  be  as  little 
regarded  as  that  of  a  county ;  for  interest  and  opinions,  not  neighborhood, 
are  the  real  bonds  of  union  in  a  constituency. 

3 


34 


district,  would  make  it  altogether  unnecessary ;  for  if  bribery  in 
a  limited  constituency,  as  in  the  English  elections,  where  the 
parties  are  the  richest  in  the  land,  is  ruinous  to  the  candidates, 
how  would  it  be  possible  with  us,  in  a  constituency  of  more 
than  ten  thousand  votes?  Moreover,  it  is  only  in  elections 
by  majorities  that  the  doubtful  votes  command  a  price.  Here 
we  should  not  have  a  scale  to  be  turned,  but  a  measure  to  be 
filled,  and  a  large  field  to  gather  from.  The  very  publi- 
city of  the  record  would  be  a  safeguard ;  and  if  there  were 
still  a  doubt,  an  oath  might  be  administered  to  candidates  or 
constituents,  that  the  vote  was  neither  given  nor  received  under 
threats  or  promise  of  reward.  Under  the  present  system, 
there  is  great  facility  of  corruption,  and  owing  to  the  secrecy 
of  the  vote,  detection  is  nearly  impossible. 

The  secret  ballot  must  be  of  course  abandoned  ;  but  instead 
of  this  being  a  sacrifice  of  independence,  it  would  rather  secure 
it.  The  elector  (especially  if  the  simple  standard  of  respect- 
ability were  established  which  has  been  before  suggested), 
would  regard  his  vote  as  a  duty  to  his  country,  and  perform  it 
without  fear  or  favor ;  and  so  far  would  he  be  from  dreading 
the  intimidation  of  an  employer,  that  this  system  would  tend 
to  produce  such  unison  of  feeling  between  the  latter  and  all 
his  workmen,  that  they  would  rarely  wish  to  vote  differently. 
The  record  would,  moreover,  be  a  bar  to  treachery  and  all  se- 
cret influences,  and  a  vote  of  which  the  voter  should  be  ashamed, 
will  never  be  given  by  him. 

While  the  radicals  in  England  have  been  contending  for  the 
ballot,  true  reformers  in  America  would  rather  return  to  the 
honest  and  manly  system  of  voting  viva  voce;  being  convinced 
that  wherever  there  is  secrecy  there  may  be  fraud,  and  that  so 
far  from  the  laborer  being  at  the  mercy  of  an  offended  em- 
ployer, intimidation  if  practised  will  be  from  the  masses,  and 
capital,  not  labor,  the  victim.    Only  the  demagogue,  whose  in- 


fluence  is  secret  and  who  works  in  dark  places,  would  retain  a 
system  favorable  to  his  intrigues. 

The  abolition  of  the  system  of  electoral  districts  would  remove 
another  popular  fallacy.  If  land  or  the  owners  of  land  were 
alone  represented  in  our  Legislative  assemblies,  there  might 
be  some  meaning  in  returning  members  from  these  divisions  of 
territory  ;  but.  since  it  is  the  people  who  inhabit  it  whose  wishes 
are  to  be  carried  out,  whose  rights  secured,  whose  interests 
protected  and  prosperity  advanced,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how 
one  man  can  represent  such  discordant  elements  as  constitute 
the  population  of  any  crowded  district,  especially  a  large  town 
or  city.  In  a  rural  district  alone  can  a  population  be  found 
united  in  interest,  and  experience  has  shown  that  even  among 
them  is  often  found  a  greater  divergence  of  opinion  upon  poli- 
tical matters,  than  in  a  population  given  exclusively  to  any 
other  form  of  industry. 

A  greater  tyranny  cannot  be  conceived  than  to  force  a  large 
part  of  any  population,  even  if  it  be  only  a  minority,  to  com- 
mit the  utterance  of  their  wishes  and  the  guardianship  of  their 
interests  in  the  National  or  State  government,  to  a  man  they 
cannot  trust,  and  whose  enmity  they  have  won  by  the  bitterness 
of  a  party  contest.  In  no  way  can  this  be  avoided  but  by  the 
adoption  of  some  such  system  as  the  one  proposed  in  this  essay, 
and  by  Mr.  Hare. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  such  a  change  in  our  system 
of  representation  could  be  carried  without  opposition :  but  no 
one  can  honestly  say  that  it  is  less  Democratic  than  the  one  it 
is  intended  to  supersede,  unless  Democracy  consists  in  putting 
power  into  the  hands  of  a  few  men.  Here,  all  would  vote  on 
terms  of  perfect  equality,  the  electors  uniting  voluntarily  in 
the  choice  of  members  of  their  own  selection,  really  repre- 
senting their  interests.  Xo  vote  would  be  nullified,  and  on 
the  contrary,  every  citizen  would  be  really  represented  by  the 


36 

man  of  his  choice;  frauds  in  elections  would  be  impossible, 
nor  could  any  question  of  electoral  returns  come  before  the 
Legislature  to  be  decided,  as  it  always  is,  by  a  strictly  party 
vote. 

But  of  all  the  advantages  arising  from  the  change,  the  great- 
est would  be  in  disuse  of  political  caucus,  and  the  end  put  to 
primary  elections ;  which  together  form  a  system  so  full  of 
fraud,  so  incapable  of  correction,  that  it  must  be  destroyed,  or 
it  will  utterly  eradicate  all  public  virtue,  entirely  undermine 
every  principle  upon  which  free  institutions  are  based,  and 
leave  us  nothing  but  the  knife  to  eradicate  the  cancer  in  our 
body  politic,  with  small  hope  indeed  of  surviving  the  operation. 

If  the  electoral  system,  working  with  such  disastrous  effect 
for  more  than  our  generation,  has  not  altogether  degraded  us 
as  a  nation,  rendering  it  nearly  impossible  for  a  highminded 
man  to  enter  into  politics,  or  soon  destroying  his  sense  of 
honor  by  the  associations  and  practices  he  must  tolerate;  and 
leaving  no  other  course  for  honest  ambition  but  the  acquisition 
of  money,  a  career  itself  most  sadly  corroding,  to  the  higher 
sentiments  of  our  nature;  if  there  are  still  among  us  a  class 
of  independent,  patriotic  gentlemen  ;  or  printers,  shoemakers, 
and  blacksmiths,  like  the  .Franklins,  Shermans,  and  Greenes 
of  our  Revolution,  such  a  system  as  the  one  proposed  would 
give  them  place  in  our  national  councils,  and  invest  them  with 
authority  to  speak  as  no  other  representatives  could  speak, 
with  honesty  and  boldness,  fearing  no  reproach,  and  checked 
by  no  base  party  consideration ;  representing  totalities,  they 
would  be  sure  to  be  sustained  while  they  support  the  true 
interests  of  their  constituents ;  truckling  in  nothing  to  those 
they  despise,  they  would  legislate  according  to  their  conscien- 
tious convictions,  for  the  good  of  their  country;  and,  when 
the  decision  on  a  great  question  was  made,  all  must  submit  to 


37 


the  will  of  the  real  majority  of  the  nation,  speaking  by  their 
true  delegates.  Owing  their  places  to  no  corrupt  bargain  or 
base  concession,  they  would  be  incapable  of  corruption  in 
their  legislative  office.  Sustained  by  the  whole  body  of  their 
constituents,  who  had  really  chosen  them  as  their  organs,  they  - 
would  feel  the  conscious  dignity  of  men  worthily  invested  with 
supreme  power,  and  use  it  only  for  their  country's  good, 
identified  as  it  would  be  with  their  own  honor  and  lasting 
fame. 

Is  this  a  dream — a  fantastic  and  impossible  idea?  Let  it 
not  be  hastily  rejected  as  such;  for  it  is  a  scheme  to  retrieve 
the  honor  and  honesty  of  our  legislative  assemblies,  the  cor- 
ruption and  degradation  of  which  is  the  disease  our  Republic 
is  dying  of.  Something  must  be  done,  or  our  institutions  will 
speedily  perish. 

But  the  greatest  of  all  the  problems  submitted  to  us  as  a 
nation  is  still  unsolved, — the  possibility  of  electing  the  Chief 
Magistrate  of  a  great  Republic  without  corruption  and  without 
violence ;  the  invention  of  a  scheme  for  selecting  among  all 
our  people  a  man  worthy  of  the  exalted  honor  and  the  mighty 
trust. 

If  the  system  of  nominating  and  electing  proposed  in  this 
essay,  for  members  of  Congress,  could  be  applied  to  the  choice 
of  Presidential  Electors,  we  might  reasonably  hope  for  the 
creation  of  Electoral  Colleges  consisting  of  men  of  character 
and  influence,  not  the  nominees  of  politicians,  or  the  repre- 
sentatives of  party;  and,  in  that  case,  we  should  have  an 
effectual  realization  of  the  views  of  those  great  and  patriotic 
men  who  framed  our  Constitution,  and  whose  work  has  been 
so  lamentably  perverted  by  their  descendants. 

If  we  adopt  the  present  basis  and  proportion  of  electoral 


38 


votes,  every  elector,  corresponding  to  the  representative  in 
Congress,  must  in  the  same  way  obtain  a  totality  vote ;  and 
the  two  Senatorial  Electors  (as  they  are  sometimes  called) 
might  be  chosen  by  the  Legislatures  of  each  State ;  thus  vary- 
ing the  mode  of  election,  and  giving  another  chance  for  a 
good  choice. 

When  assembled  in  the  Electoral  Colleges,  each  elector 
should  give  his  independent  vote,  to  be  counted  as  such  in  the 
general  return, — the  object  being,  as  before  stated,  to  frus- 
trate the  intrigues  of  State  politicians,  and  render  a  sectional 
candidate  impossible. 

As  this  system  of  counting  the  individual  votes  in  the  gene- 
ral return  is  more  likely  to  result  in  a  failure  to  secure  at  first 
a  majority  to  any  candidate,  than  the  present  system,  the 
Electoral  Colleges  might  meet  again  after  the  interval  of  one 
month;  and,  if  it  be  found  that  the  election  has  failed  from 
the  number  of  candidates,  a  new  election  might  be  made,  with 
the  choice  narrowed  to  the  three  candidates  who  had  obtained 
the  highest  number  of  votes  at  the  previous  election.  This 
would  appear  to  be  safer  than  to  trust  the  second  election  to 
the  House  of  Representatives,  as  in  our  present  system. 

As  experience  has  shown  that  many  evils  arise  from  a  long 
interval  between  the  election  and  inauguration  of  a  President, 
the  first  meeting  of  the  Electoral  Colleges  might  be  fixed  on 
the  first  of  December,  the  second  on  the  first  of  January ; 
which  it  is  presumed  would  leave  time  enough  for  the  Presi- 
dent elect  to  make  his  preliminary  arrangements  before  the 
fourth  of  March. 

While  it  might  be  hoped  that  this  change  of  system  would 
result  in  the  formation  of  such  Electoral  Colleges  as  the 
framers  of  our  present  Constitution  expected,  and  that  our 
people,  in  trusting  to  a  body  of  their  fellow-citizens  an  office 
of  such  high  responsibility  and  dignity  as  the  election  of  Presi- 


39 


dent,  would  take  care  that  they  were  worthy  of  it ;  yet  the  prize 
of  the  Presidential  office  is  so  high,  its  powers  so  great,  its 
patronage  so  enormous,  that  we  cannot  be  sure  it  would  not 
be  sought  by  bad  men,  and  that  every  elector  would  be  proof 
against  his  seductions,  and  impenetrable  by  the  lust  of  wealth, 
or  the  temptation  of  office. 

It  would  be  well  to  provide  against  these  evils,  and  to  seek, 
if  we  can,  some  mode  of  limiting  the  selection  to  men  qualified 
for  office,  by  honorable  and  distinguished  service  elsewhere ; 
and  at  the  same  time  so  to  diminish  the  patronage  of  office,  as 
to  render  corruption  nearly  impossible. 

The  first  object  might  be  attained  by  limiting  the  selection 
of  candidates  to  citizens  who  had  at  some  time  been  Senators 
of  the  United  States,  and  had  filled  their  seats  in  that  digni- 
fied assembly  for  two  years  at  least.  This,  it  is  thought, 
would  be  attended  with  double  advantage.  It  would  greatly 
increase  the  dignity  and  importance  of  that  body,  and  secure 
to  the  Presidential  candidate  some  experience,  not  only  in 
legislation,  but  in  statesmanship,  while  acting  as  a  special 
adviser  of  the  Executive  in  diplomatic  matters,  and  in  con- 
sidering his  nominations  for  the  great  offices  of  the  nation. 

The  Legislatures  of  the  States,  in  appointing  to  the  Fede- 
ral Senate,  would  recollect  that  they  were  nominating  to  the 
nation  one  of  their  fellow-citizens  as  a  possible  candidate  for 
the  Presidential  office,  and  would  not  lightly  throw  away  the 
advantage  to  be  gained  by  a  good  selection,  knowing  that  the 
greater  his  virtues  and  abilities,  the  greater  chance  that  this 
high  honor  would  redound  to  his  native  State;  while  the 
members  of  the  Senate  would  feel  that  the  eyes  of  the  whole 
nation  were  specially  directed  to  them,  as  the  body  from  which, 
or  its  former  members,  they  must  from  time  to  time  select 
their  Chief  Magistrate.  Higher  motives  to  a  noble  ambition, 
a  greater  stimulus  to  patriotic  service  cannot  be  conceived. 


40 


This  liberty  of  selection  might  be  extended  to  all  who  had 
filled  the  offices  of  Governors  of  the  Federated  States,  and, 
perhaps,  some  other  high  officials,  especially  in  the  Judiciary ; 
providing,  only,  that  they  are  not  in  office  at  the  time  of  their 
nomination,  the  object  being  to  secure  ability  and  integrity 
proved  in  the  previous  tenure  of  high  office. 

It  would,  indeed,  be  unwise  to  exclude  the  military  profes- 
sions from  a  chance  of  selection  for  the  highest  National 
honors.  In  war  the  noblest  qualities  are  discovered,  the  best 
abilities  displayed.  Washington,  Wellington,  and  Marlbo- 
rough exhibited  in  their  campaigns  talents  for  diplomacy, 
statesmanship,  and  general  administration  equal  to  their 
military  skill ;  and  it  would  be  well  to  invite  from  time  to 
time  into  our  legislative  counsels  men  whose  great  qualities 
have  already  been  exhibited  in  the  tented  field.  In  all  the 
great  constitutional  monarchies  of  Europe,  many  eminent 
soldiers  have  seats  in  the  legislative  halls  ;  and  in  the  coun- 
tries under  despotic  rule,  the  first  offices  of  state  are  often 
filled  by  military  men.  It  is  quite  otherwise  in  our  Republic, 
where,  while  we  have  abundance  of  generals  and  colonels  in 
Congress  and  our  State  Assemblies,  they  are  men  whose  title 
is  only  an  empty  pretension  to  military  knowledge  or  service. 

The  attainments  and  experience  of  educated  officers  from 
our  military  and  naval  professions,  would  often  be  invaluable 
in  the  committees  to  which  are  assigned  the  affairs  of  war ; 
while  the  knowledge  of  the  world,  of  which  many  have  seen 
much,  and  their  high  tone  and  bearing,  would  be  a  most  de- 
sirable infusion  into  our  legislative  assemblies.  If  officers  of 
the  army  and  navy  could  be  elected  to  Congress  without  re- 
signing or  losing  grade  in  the  service  (merely  relinquishing 
for  the  time  their  pay  and  their  progressive  seniority),  they 
would  form  a  great  addition  to  our  legislative  strength ;  and  if 
appointed  by  their  own  States  to  a  place  in  the  National 


41 


Senate  (an  honor  very  likely  to  be  conferred  on  those  worthy 
of  it),  they  would  thus  be  placed  in  the  rank  of  candidates; 
and  should  the  voice  of  the  Electoral  Colleges  call  them  to  the 
Presidential  chair,  they  would  not  come  into  office  without 
some  experience  in  the  trade  of  statesmanship. 

The  last  point  to  be  considered  is  the  patronage  of  office, 
and  its  influence  on  elections.  Great  as  is  this  evil, — it  may 
be  the  greatest  in  our  land,  as  affecting  the  honor  of  our 
statesmen  and  the  morality  of  our  politics, — its  removal  seems 
to  be  easy,  if  we  have  the  will  to  do  it. 

The  President,  as  the  great  executive  head  of  the  nation, 
must  be  placed  above  this  miserable  business.  There  is  not  a 
department  in  which  it  would  not  be  a  gain  to  him,  as  well  as 
to  the  nation,  to  place  all  appointments  in  other  hands. 

The  highest  functionaries  of  State,  the  Cabinet  officers,  and 
the  foreign  representatives  of  the  country  must  be  under  his 
control ;  but  the  great  departments  of  the  army,  navy,  and 
treasury  might  be  entirely  committed  to  permanent  boards ;  at 
which,  if  desired,  the  Ministers  of  State  might  preside,  but 
which  might  safely  be  trusted  to  fill  the  places  for  which  they 
best  know  the  qualifications.  The  Post  Office  need  have  no 
connection  with  the  Executive.  The  local  postmasters  indeed 
might  be  safely  left  to  popular  elections. 

If  the  nomination  of  the  members  of  great  departmental 
boards  be  given  to  the  Executive  with  the  consent  of  the 
Senate,  there  should  be  no  power  of  removal  except  for  mis- 
conduct or  incompetence,  verified  before  the  Senate ;  and  the 
appointment  of  the  inferior  officers  in  their  departments,  in- 
cluding the  whole  military  service,  if  requiring  the  assent  of 
the  minister  at  its  head,  should  be  ever  after  beyond  his  con- 
trol, except  for  similar  causes.  In  this  way,  great  official  in- 
dependence and  honor  would  be  inspired,  and  high  qualifica- 
tions secured  by  education  in  the  grades  of  office.  In  no  other 


42 


country  than  ours  are  all  the  officials  liable  to  displacement  on 
each  popular  election ;  and  in  no  country  on  earth  is  there 
such  incompetence  among  them. 

The  nomination  of  the  Federal  Judiciary  must,  of  course, 
be  left  to  the  Executive;  but  if  confirmation  required  a  three- 
fourths  vote  of  the  Senate,  the  appointment  would  be  taken 
out  of  party  politics ;  while,  if  the  courts  had  the  power  of 
temporarily  supplying  vacancies  on  their  own  benches,  they 
would  effectually  stop  all  factious  opposition  to  a  good  ap- 
pointment. 

The  interpretation  given  to  the  constitutional  powers  of  the 
President  in  the  early  days  of  our  Republic,  when  the  cha- 
racter of  Washington  and  his  successor  seemed  to  guarantee 
us  against  appointments  from  corrupt  or  purely  party  motives, 
was  most  unfortunate.  It  was  not  supposed  possible  that  a 
capable  and  faithful  officer  could  be  removed  for  a  vote  hostile 
to  the  Executive,  or  to  give  place  to  one  whose  only  merit  was 
his  electioneering  services  to  a  new  President ;  and  the  know- 
ledge that  occasional  emergencies  must  arise  calling  for  prompt 
action,  when  the  Senate  could  not  be  consulted,  was,  probably, 
the  cause  of  acquiescence  in  the  peremptory  power  of  re- 
moval. 

The  evil  consequences  of  this  concession  were  never  fully 
realized  till  the  election  of  General  Jackson,  who  first  intro- 
duced the  pernicious  and  tyrannical  practice  of  punishing  all 
opponents  in  public  places,  and  giving  their  offices  to  his 
friends  and  supporters.  From  that  time,  parties  in  this 
country  became  thoroughly  corrupt.  Men  fought  not  for 
principles  but  for  offices  and  spoils.  Implicit  subservience  to 
the  dictates  of  party  was  insisted  on  by  its  leaders.  Our  po- 
litical caucuses  and  conventions  became  marts  where  princi- 
ples and  votes  were  sold  for  promises  of  office  and  contracts; 
and  the  advent  of  a  new  President  or  Governor  filled  the  Na- 


43 


tional  or  State  capital  with  hungry  hordes, — men  without  cha- 
racter or  worth,  claiming  for  themselves  places  of  honor  and 
trust,  to  which  they,  of  all  men,  were  least  entitled  by  tried 
ability  or  honesty. 

The  framers  of  the  Constitution  of  the  Confederate  States 
have  denied  the  power  of  removal  from  office  by  the  arbitrary 
will  of  the  Executive ;  and  it  is  to  be  hoped,  whatever  may  be 
the  result  of  our  national  divisions,  that  this  constitutional  pro- 
vision may  be  adopted  by  us. 

A  peremptory  dismissal  of  a  Cabinet  officer  or  their  confi- 
dential clerks  is  a  necessary  power.  A  temporary  suspension 
from  office  might  be  conceded  to  the  great  departmental  boards, 
or  perhaps  to  their  heads.  A  power  of  recall  from  foreign 
missions  may  be  necessary,  but  always  to  be  submitted  with 
statement  of  causes  to  the  Senate.  Here  all  power  over  the 
occupants  of  office  should  end.  Official  integrity,  the  faithful  and 
intelligent  performance  of  duty  requires  it;  above  all,  the  re- 
lief of  our  electoral  system  from  the  most  extensive  and  flagrant 
corruption  demands  it. 

Take  away  this  power,  and  our  Electoral  Colleges  will  be 
relieved  from  every  suspicion  of  baseness  and  intrigue.  Choose 
our  electors  in  the  manner  previously  suggested,  and  they  will 
unite  in  selecting  for  us,  from  all  the  nation,  the  men  most  de- 
serving of  our  confidence  by  their  public  services  and  unques- 
tioned abilities.  Party,  as  it  is  now  understood,  would  be  an- 
nihilated. Great  public  questions  would  undoubtedly  interest 
and  excite  a  great  and  free  and  intelligent  people,  and  have 
influence  in  elections,  but  in  the  choice  of  a  First  Magistrate, 
we  may  be  sure  they  never  would  be  cheated  into  the  election 
of  a  man  neither  qualified  for  his  place  by  his  talents,  his  edu- 
cation, his  experience,  or  his  integrity. 

And  what  an  accession  of  independence  and  dignity  would 


44 


it  not  give  to  the  Chief  of  our  nation,  placed  above  all  base, 
all  party  influences,  and  occupied  solely  with  affairs  of  state ! 

We  can  hardly  doubt  his  being  actuated  by  the  noblest  pa- 
triotism in  all  his  acts.  His  influence  in  our  legislative  bodies 
would  be  great,  but  always  legitimate,  for  he  could  buy  no  votes 
for  his  favorite  measures;  his  foreign  and  national  policy 
would  always  be  upright,  for  purely  party  considerations 
would  be  impossible  for  a  man  so  selected. 

Personal  dignity  might  always  be  expected,  for  his  selection 
would  surely  be  made  from  the  first  men  of  the  nation,  and 
his  associations  could  never  be  degrading.  No  rowdy  ruffian 
with  his  troop  of  bullies  could  march  triumphantly  in  the  inau- 
gural cortege,  or  force  himself  as  a  guest  into  the  Presidential 
mansion ;  no  base  intriguer  could  claim  his  patronage  in  reward 
for  services  disgraceful  to  both.  While  claiming  no  preroga- 
tive of  birth,  no  advantages  from  wealth,  rising  as  he  might 
well  do  from  humble  rank  by  successive  stages  of  merit,  he 
would  prove  to  the  world  that  the  widest  Democracy  can  pro- 
duce a  gentleman,  and  knows  how  to  honor  him. 

One  of  the  evils  of  the  existing  system  of  election  which 
has  been  often  remarked,  arises  from  their  frequency.  Hardly 
is  one  election  closed,  before  plans  are  laid  for  another.  The 
defeated  party  at  once  begins  its  assaults  upon  the  newly 
elected  member,  and  both  prepare  with  increased  animosity 
for  a  new  contest. 

This  constant  excitement  is  most  unfavorable  to  a  sound  con- 
dition of  the  public  mind  on  political  subjects;  and  moreover, 
as  all  citizens  cannot  give  their  time  to  this  incessant  political 
warfare  and  intrigue,  the  work  must  needs  be  done  by  the 
mercenary  army  of  politicians  of  all  grades,  which  our  vicious 
system  has  created  and  must  continue  to  foster. 

It  has  been  proposed  to  diminish  this  evil  by  extending  the 


45 


term  of  office  both  of  our  Chief  Magistrate  and  also  of  our 
political  assemblies ;  but  a  little  reflection  will  show  how  emi- 
nently unfair  and  pernicious  this  extension  would  be  under 
our  present  system  of  electing  by  fictitious  majorities. 

Disfranchised  as  are  all  the  citizens  not  voting  for  the  suc- 
cessful candidate, — a  class  often  embracing  a  real  majority, 
and  still  more  frequently  containing  the  largest  proportion  of 
those  whose  education  is  the  highest,  and  whose  interests  are 
the  greatest  in  the  community, — utterly  disregarded  as  are 
all  their  rights  and  wishes,  even  when  unquestionably  ex- 
pressed, by  the  representative  of  their  political  enemies,  who 
is  sure  to  take  every  advantage  of  victory, — the  prolongation 
of  his  term  would  be  oppressive  and  tyrannical,  giving  time  to 
the  unprincipled  men  who ,  are  the  dictators  of  the  party  to 
secure,  if  they  can,  by  iniquitous  legislation,  the  power 
acquired  by  fraud,  or  to  complete  the  ruin  of  the  State  by 
misgovernment  and  plunder,  before  handing  it  over  to  their 
political  enemies.  Those  who  have  felt  the  misfortune  and 
disgrace  of  being  constantly  misrepresented  in  the  national 
Executive  and  councils ;  those  who  are  aware  of  the  irreme- 
diable mischief  to  be  done,  even  in  their  present  brief  tenure  of 
office,  by  an  unprincipled  minority  party,  will  never  consent 
to  increase  the  evil  by  the  prolongation  of  its  power. 

But  adopt  the  system  here  proposed,  of  electing  by  totali- 
ties, and  every  objection  to  a  prolonged  term  disappears. 
The  member  elect  has  no  enemies  in  the  rear.  He  has  no 
battle  to  fight  at  home.  He  really  represents  the  whole  body 
of  his  constituents.  His  selection  is  the  very  expression  of 
their  wishes  :  he  is  sure  to  take  counsel  with  and  for  them,  and 
to  defend  all  their  rights  and  interests.  The  President  elect 
has  been  the  choice  of  a  real  majority  of  the  nation, — not 
nominated  by  intriguers,  but  selected  by  men  most  capable 
of  judging  of  capacity  and  worth,  and  raised  to  office  for 


46 


merits  and  services  proved  in  other  capacities.  In  both  cases 
power  may  safely  be  trusted,  for  it  will  not  be  abused.  In 
both,  a  prolongation  of  office  is  not  only  convenient,  but  desi- 
rable. As  it  would  probably  be  renewed  by  re-election,  there 
is  the  best  reason  for  prolonging  the  term.  Frequent  elec- 
tions, so  essential  under  the  present  system,  to  protect  private 
rights  and  secure  an  expression  of  public  wishes,  would  be 
here  unnecessary ;  and  the  evil  of  frequent  changes  and  con- 
stant political  agitation  would  be  obviated,  without  encounter- 
ing a  greater  evil, — the  consolidation  of  party  despotism. 

This  is  believed  to  be  the  last  topic  to  which  it  is  necessary 
to  advert, — the  evil  of  false  majorities  being  mainly  confined 
to  the  choice  of  the  members  of  our  legislative  bodies  and  the 
Presidential  election. 

The  executive  officers  of  the  various  States  and  counties 
must  be  elected  by  simple  majorities  ;  and  whatever  frauds 
or  abuses  may  exist  in  these  elections,  can  be  safely  left  for 
correction  to  the  Legislatures  of  the  States,  if  they  are  fairly 
chosen  according  to  the  principle  here  advocated. 

It  would  be  a  trespass  on  the  time  and  patience  of  the 
reader  of  these  pages,  if  more  were  added. 

The  monstrous  evils  of  our  present  representative  system 
have  been  exposed,  and  a  plan  suggested,  which,  if  practicable, 
would  seem  to  promise  a  removal  of  all  these  evils.  It 
would  require  very  long  and  careful  study  to  adapt  it  to  a 
practical  working  result.  Difficulties  may  suggest  themselves 
demanding  essential  changes ;  and,  although  the  machinery 
for  voting  seems  simple  enough,  there  are  numerous  contin- 
gencies to  be  met  with  suitable  contrivances.  Some  of  them 
have  already  occurred  to  the  writer;  but  it  does  not  at  present 
seem  necessary  to  suggest  them.    It  is  sufficient  now  to  de- 


47 


velop  a  general  plan,  which  it  is  hoped  may  be  intelligible  to 
all.  Like  many  other  fair  and  promising  schemes,  it  may  be 
a  mere  illusion;  but  if  it  turns  other  minds  into  similar 
trains  of  thought,  the  result  may  be  the  discovery  of  some 
method  of  electing,  more  practical,  more  efficient,  and  better 
suited  to  our  American  people. 

If  our  country  is  saved  from  degradation  by  any  other 
means,  it  will  be  no  mortification  to  the  author  of  the  present 
scheme,  that  his  plan  has  been  neglected  and  forgotten. 


I 


1 


I 


